THE SABBATH AND THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IN THE FIRST CENTURY.
By G. E. Fifield
The Sabbath in the Early Church—The Sunday in the Early Church—Testimony of Scholars Who Observed Sunday.
It has been made plain that Jesus did not change the Sabbath, but that, instead of doing this, He gave His life to restore the ancient Sabbath to its true place, and make it honorable. Nothing could be plainer than that the seventh-day Sabbath was universally observed in the early church. Jesus Himself calls it the Sabbath as late as A.D. 70, when, in speaking prophetically of the destruction of Jerusalem, He says to His disciples, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20. To the close of the sacred canon all the writers continue to call the seventh day the Sabbath, while they are utterly silent of any other day of weekly worship and rest. Speaking of the synagog of the Jews at Thessalonica, it says, "Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 17:2. But it was not merely in the Jewish synagog and to Jews that it was his manner to preach on the Sabbath day; for at Philippi he tells us, "On the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither." Acts 16:13. And at Antioch, after preaching to the Jews one Sabbath in their synagog, "the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." In all the Gentile world at this time the first day of the week, as the sun festival, was the day most honored. Now, if Paul had been preaching that it was a part of Christianity to observe this very day thus honored by the heathen, why did they not recognize the likeness between their religion and Paul's in this matter, and say at once, Now you have preached to the Jews in their synagog on their Sabbath, preach the same words to us to-morrow on our Sunday? But no; the request was for the next Sabbath day. "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God." Acts 13:42-44. Nothing would have more quickly excited those Jews to utter madness than to have preached to them to disregard the Sabbath, and to show religious honor to the first day,—the detested heathen sun festival. Yet in all their many persecutions of the disciples, this is never once entered as a complaint. Paul faced these Jews with a statement they could not deny when he said, "Men and brethren, tho I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans." Acts 28:17. Christianity was built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, Christ being the chief corner-stone. It did not teach them to disregard a custom consecrated by Christ at creation. Again Paul says: "Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Acts 20:26, 27. Yet he never alluded to any change of the Sabbath; so we know God never counseled such a change. Paul's words in Rom. 14:5, 6 and Col. 2:14-17 are often quoted to prove that the Sabbath was abolished. If they proved this, however, they would as clearly prove that there was now no weekly rest day. And especially would the words in Colossians reprove those who seek to judge and jail people for not keeping the first day of the week. In both instances the whole context makes plain that these texts refer to the Jewish yearly, typical festival days, and not to the weekly Sabbath. This, all Bible expositors once knew and taught. Of the fourteenth of Romans, Clark says:— Reference is here made to the Jewish institutions, such as the Passover, Pentecost, feast of tabernacles, new moons, jubilees, etc. That the Sabbath is of lasting obligation may be reasonably concluded from its institution. Of the passage in Colossians Clark says:— There is no intimation here that the Sabbath is done away, or that its moral use is superseded by the introduction of Christianity. Of the passage in Colossians the commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown says:— Sabbaths of the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles have come to an end, with the Jewish service to which they belonged. The weekly Sabbath rests on a more permanent foundation, having been instituted in Paradise to commemorate the completion of creation. That there was a great controversy over just what should constitute the change from the old to the new, and just how many of the services sacred to the Jews should be brought into the new church, the Word makes very plain. If, as we are taught to-day, Christ and His apostles had sought to abolish the Sabbath and institute in its place the observance of the first day, this would have been the central point of this controversy. Here the Jewish converts would have made the strongest resistance. Yet in the whole record of this controversy and of the council that was called to settle it, the sacredness of the Sabbath is never called in question, nor is the first day of the week even once mentioned. To every thinking mind this, it seems to me, is conclusive. Of the observance of the Sabbath in the early church, Kitto says:— It is, however, clear from several passages in the New Testament that it continued to be observed as heretofore by these converts, along with other peculiarities of the law. Our Saviour adds, "Therefore the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day," which is on all hands agreed to mean that he had power to abrogate it partially or wholly if He thought fit, and it is admitted that He did not then think fit to exercise it.—Kitto, Cyclopedia Biblical Literature, article Sabbath. It must be constantly kept in mind that in all our quotations from commentaries and from historians, we are quoting the admissions of those who themselves observed the first day of the week. While they, therefore, do not falsify, they are sometimes very economical of the truth, and they frequently deal it out only on the instalment plan. This is true of the following, from "Chambers' Encyclopedia." One is reminded of the story of the boy who was selling the blind horse. He appeared to conscientiously tell all his defects, and especially that he was totally blind in one eye. After the sale was consummated, the buyer asked: "Is there anything else the matter with this horse? Come, now, tell me; it will do you no harm, for the horse is sold." "Yes," said the boy, "there is one other little thing. He is blind in the other eye." The reader will see the application as he reads the following:— On no occasion does Jesus appear to have sanctioned the performance of real work on the seventh day, unless it was demanded by some higher duty than that of bodily rest. For several years after the death of Jesus, the church consisted of none but Jews, and by these the Sabbath and other Mosaic rites continued to be observed as before. . . . That Paul never taught the Jewish Christians to abandon the observance of the law, but, on the contrary, continued to the end to observe it himself, appears clear. . . . In the Eastern churches, where the proportion of Jews (i.e., Jewish Christians) was greater than in the West, the Sabbath continued to be observed till the fifth century. . . . Down to the present time, however, Sabbath-keeping . . . continues to be practised by the Christians of Abyssinia. In other countries, also, many of the Gentile Christians seem to have anciently observed the Sabbath.—Chambers' Encyclopedia, article Sabbath. Thus, by degrees, the truth is out. First, Christ and His apostles kept the Sabbath and taught it; secondly, the Jewish Christians did so; thirdly, in the East, that is, in Palestine and Asia, the home of Christianity, the Sabbath continued to be observed by Jewish and Gentile Christians till the fifth century, and by some even till now. Predominant Jewish influence is the reason given. But I had supposed Christian influence predominated in the Christian church. And I had supposed the example of Christ and the apostles was Christian, not Jewish. Lastly, in other countries Gentile Christians anciently observed the Sabbath. It is the boy's last admission, "The other eye is blind also." As to the observance of the first day, this same authority continues:— At what date the Sunday, or first day of the week, began to be generally used by Christians as a stated time for religious meetings, we have no definite information, either in the New Testament or in the writings of the fathers of the church. By none of the fathers before the fourth century is it identified with the Sabbath, nor is the duty of observing it grounded by them either on the fourth commandment, or on the precept or example of Jesus or His apostles.—Article Sabbath. Kitto also adds his testimony to prove that the first day of the week was not observed in the apostolic church. He says:— We will merely remark that, tho in the later times we find considerable reference to a sort of consecration of the day, it does not seem at any period of the ancient church to have assumed the form of such an observance as some modern religious communities have contended for. Nor do these writers in any instance pretend to allege any divine command, or even apostolic practise, in support of it. [Italics his.]—Encyclopedia Biblical Literature, article Lord's Day. Verily, the great church historian, Neander, speaks the truth when he says:— The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect; far from them and from the early apostolic church to transfer the laws of Sabbath to Sunday.—Church History, page 184; translations by H. J. Rose. It should be enough for all Bible Christians to know that the observance of Sunday has no scriptural authority, and that it did not have the sanction of the example of Christ, the apostles, or even of the early church. In succeeding papers we shall show whence it7did derive its authority. Its titles, "Lord's Day" and "Christian sabbath," are surely both fraudulent, since they bring not with them the sanction of Christ the Lord.